Nokia bought by Microsoft

Nokia has sold its Devices and Services unit to Microsoft for a total of 5.4 billion euros. The decision to sell was made after 99.5 per cent of Nokia’s shareholders approved of the deal.

Nokia has seen a drop in sales as companies like Samsung and Apple took control of the mobile phone market with their new generation of smartphones.

Microsoft will continue to produce devices that bear the Nokia brand for the next ten years, while Nokia will refrain from re-joining the mobile phone market for another two and a half years.

However, that does mean Nokia could theoretically begin producing phones again in 2016.

It is thought that the Lumia and Asha models will be integrated into Microsoft’s internal structure. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Microsoft “can probably do better for consumer names than the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 1020”.